Cross Tracks
by muaaimoi
Summary: Sheldon and Brittany meet briefly on a train. That's it, that's the story.


**Cross Tracks**

_**by: muaaimoi**_

Brittany is terribly bored.

For once Lord Tubbington is not to blame. He had warned her that the train ride would be really long and that her battery wouldn't last. She'd sent her laptop ahead with the rest of her things when she'd initially packed, so once her phone died, she was left with nothing to do. The train compartment was too narrow to risk dancing in.

She didn't want to start MIT with a cast on her foot.

So she had nothing to do, and no one to blame but herself. She'd wanted to try taking the train because Santana, Kurt, and even Rachel had. Her parents had been happy to let her do it. They'd even special ordered her an MIT sweater to ride in, so that everyone would know where she was going.

They'd been so proud of her that they'd been giving her pretty much whatever she wanted. And Brittany had wanted to head to school on a train, like in Harry Potter. But there weren't any chocolate frogs anywhere, or magical people in pointy hats, and now that her phone stopped working it just didn't seem cool anymore.

Finally figuring that she might die of boredom if she stayed, Brittany decided to head out. Maybe she'd get lucky and run into someone who'd be willing to add her on facebook. Then she'd get to see how much of the strangers stuff ended up on her wall.

That was always fun.

She passed three empty compartments before she found a guy sitting in one. He was alone, hunched over his laptop. He had a cute face and really pretty eyes. Plus he looked tall, if she wasn't still sad about having to break up with Sam, and confused about whether or not that meant she was back together with Santana, she would have asked if he wanted to make out.

"Hi!" Brittany said brightly, smiling at him to show that she was nice.

The guy jumped, surprised. He must of really been into whatever he was watching on his laptop. Oh! Maybe he was watching porn. Brittany wondered if he'd share. Porn was always fun to look at. Even when it made no sense or was really gross. Like the two girls and their chocolate ice-cream cup.

"Hello?"

"My name's Brittany." She introduced herself, and then waited for the guy to tell her his name. It had taken Brittany a while to remember that not everybody automatically knew her name, so she was quite proud of her manners.

The guy must have had the same problem though, because he just stared at her until Brittany had to ask,"What's your name?"

xXx

"I am Doctor Sheldon Cooper Phd, Phd." Sheldon introduced himself, observing the girl intruding on his train compartment. She was pretty, and the friendly smile on her face reminded him briefly of Penny. She was an MIT student, he noted, looking at her sweater. He vaguely hoped she'd have better judgement that Wolowitz-and actually finish her education and claim a Phd for herself.

"What are you doing?" Brittany asked,"are you watching porn?"

"O-of course not!" Sheldon spluttered, outraged that she would even ask such a thing.

"Why not?"

"That would be thoughtless, and rude! Not to mention anyone who walked in would know!"

"Not if you plug in your headphones and put the volume low." Brittany advised." I watched one with my girlfriend on a plane once, and nobody noticed. We even went to the bathroom to have sex. She said it made us part of some Mile club, but we never did any running or got any club rings."

"I have much better things to do than watch pornography." Sheldon huffed, ignoring the rest of her nonsense. Her exhibitionism and homosexuality had nothing to do with him.

"Like what?"

"Like go over my research and try to anticipate what the MIT research board has called me to assist with." The board had been oddly reluctant to forward him a sample of the actual work, but he'd asked around and everyone who was involved with the project had been very excited. It was all very hush, hush for now, but the names being asked to work on the project were nothing short of remarkable.

Sheldon was looking forward to it.

"Why would MIT call you?"

"Well I am a genius." Sheldon sniffed.

Brittany nodded."They told me I was one of those too."

Sheldon paused, looking at the girl before him thoughtfully. Her gaze was what he associated with the term 'dreamy'. Much like Emily Plimpton, actually, and considering her initial line of questioning, that may not have been all the similarities they shared. Emily was a genius in her own right.

"Are you a recent MIT graduate?" Sheldon asked. She looked young, but he'd had his first Phd at seventeen.

"Nope." Brittany said, popping the P." I'm just starting collage now. No one ever thought I would. They used to tell me I was stupid. And that was when they were being nice and not calling me crazy."

"I used to get called crazy all the time." Sheldon sympathized,"Sometimes they still do. But I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested."

"Mine never did. She just said I was special. And she was right. Geniuses are special and stuff right?"

Sheldon nods slowly,"So the discovery of your genius is recent?"

"They just found out after I aced my SAT's."

Sheldon frowned."How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"You." Sheldon began slowly,"Are incredibly lucky. My genius was discovered when I was a child. By the time I was eighteen I'd spent most of my life as a prodigy. I found becoming a regular person quite horrid."

Brittany blinks at him, bemused."What?"

"One's genius is only widely acknowledged as special due to age. As a child I could out-think my teachers and was consistently seen as remarkable. Once I turned eighteen it was no longer the case. I was simply a very intelligent adult. I was no longer considered a prodigy."

"That's really sad." Brittany frowned."Is the same thing going to happen to me?"

"I suppose it depends on how dependent you become on your image as a prodigy."

Brittany's brows furrowed. She hadn't been a genius very long, but the thought of being stupid again made her feel sick. She'd gone a little crazy about it because it meant leaving her friends behind and that made her sad. At the end of the day, though, she didn't really care if she was a prodigy or not. She could always dance if being super smart didn't work out. And Santana would always love her anyway, even if Brittany wasn't her girlfriend anymore. She really should ask Santana about that. She missed their Lady kisses.

"I guess I'll be fine. Maybe I should have chicken soup on my Birthday though, just in case."

"In my experience soup is not served with Birthday cake."

"It's my party." Brittany defended."I can have soup if I want to." It was the magic of the birthday fairies.

The train came to a stop. Brittany watched Sheldon put his things away and reach for the door of the compartment.

"Hey can I have your number?" Brittany asked.

"Giving you my cell phone number would imply a much closer friendship than our brief acquaintanceship has resulted in."

"Oh." Brittany said, frowning." Then will you add me on Facebook?"

"Of course I'll add you on Facebook! We are friends now." Sheldon replied." It was nice to meet a fellow genius."

Brittany beamed."Same here, mathy-man."

They disembarked, and Sheldon made his way to MIT without another about the odd, if brilliant girl.

And then the MIT board told him about Brittany's discovery.

**x**

**So this came out...not as intended? Yeah, let's go with that. Not that I had any Idea where I was going with it in the first place...But yeah. It happened. Let me know what you think? I have no idea right now...**


End file.
